Many restaurants, and to some extent individuals, rely on grills that have grooved surfaces on their broiler grates for cooking items such as fish, chicken, steaks, ribs and many other food items thereon. Such grooved surfaces on the broiler grates are often designed with inward by angled grooves to prevent food items from falling into bottom of the grill. The grooves may be at right angles and have a depth of ½ to 1 inch or ¾ inch, which depth may not be consistent across the width of each groove. Depending on the broiler design, each groove may have multiple depths and each portion may be deeper. An example of this broiler grate design is the Vulcan® VCCB series gas char-broiler. While grilling, food particles, grease and the like separate from the food and fall into the grooves. Residual food particles may stick to surfaces in and around the grooves.
To maintain a consistent grilling surface and sanitary cooking conditions the grill must be regularly cleaned. Oils from the food being grilled run down the grooved of the broiler grates to the bottom of the grill. Cleaning of the oils, carbonaceous char, and other matter, is most commonly performed using wire brushes having bristles of uniform length. However the unique topographical features of such grooved grills make them particularly challenging to clean using uniform lengths of bristle. The bristles prove incompatible with the grooved surface of the grill. The depth of the grooves, typically ¾ inch, and particularly the angle further prevent the bristles from reaching into between the grooves for cleaning. Typical bristle brushes can only effectively clean the top of the grill surfaces, but not in between the grooves for sufficient cleaning.
Bristle brushes as well as various other scraping implements do not offer an adequate solution for cleaning the broiler grate in its entirety, including the surfaces and in between the grooves. Consequently, a need exists for an effective cleaning tool for adequately cleaning broiler grates.